novellas

War is brewing between the Greenlands and the Summer Kingdom, despite the efforts of Lord Aidan and Prince Varion, who have been meeting in secret in an attempt to maintain peace. When war proves inevitable, Aidan offers Varion asylum, loathe to see the man he’s come to care about become his enemy.

But Varion refuses, sacrificing safety and his own desires to stay in the Summer Kingdom in order to protect his little brother from their ruthless father. The two men instead declare a blood oath to always protect each other, an oath that will see them through war, transformation, and a deadly curse…

The Bastard Prince is a good fantasy novella with a few flaws that detract from the overall enjoyment. Now, this is listed as a third book in a series, but I read it first to get a taste for the style since it’s stand-alone and much shorter than the novels. I like what I see here, with some reservations, and I’ll probably read the other books at some point.

I found the core romance very satisfying, with the initially reluctant Reyes coming around to Kinnaird’s affection. This part of the novella, where a budding relationship evolves into something deep and lasting, was the highlight for me. I liked Reyes a lot as a main character, he’s easy to appreciate as someone who wants to serve the King but has no ambitions at court. Kinnaird is also a loyal earl with a secret power he uses in service of the Kingdom. He’s interesting, complex, and a great love interest.

The plot itself initially starts out very strongly, with incidents occurring across the Kingdom that threaten the safety of its people. Finding the perpetrator turns out to be less than easy, and things are further complicated when a young man arrives at court claiming to be the king’s bastard son. The story does tie up nicely, if a little too neatly to be true. I think the ending could have used a little more time to pan out. One aspect of the ending really did seem unrealistic to me and really could have used some questioning from the other characters. The fact that it could be done at all kind of underlines how little we know about the antagonists.

The villains in this are in fact my biggest problem. They’re incredibly one-dimensional and their motivations are never explained. They’re working for an enemy kingdom… why? This was never expanded on to my satisfaction, and so they came across as simply horrible people. I want more explanation than that for my antagonists. I want to know what makes them tick, if there’s some slight or insult that makes them want vengeance, if they’re unhappy or proud of what they do. Instead they’re all conveniently cleaned up and everybody lives Happily Ever After… which is fine, but I felt like there needed to be more fallout and consequences than there were. The ending felt a little hollow after the air had been sucked out of the big reveal.

Other than that I did like this book, it was a good bedtime read. The world interested me enough to make me want to see more, but to earn 5 stars it would need to be revised with more emphasis on the characterization of the villains. I prefer romance novels with actual plot, but the story needs to be fully realized and not just a side dish.

Society has collapsed, driven to madness after a great economic crash. Gangs roam the streets, taking any man, woman or child without a Mate for their own.

Martin is on the brink of despair, an asexual man who cannot keep a Mate. Facing a life he cannot bear, he heads to Spire Rock to end it. But when he reaches it, he encounters Anael, an angel sent to assess the world for destruction—and the first to accept Martin exactly as he is.

Teaming up with former gang concubine Sarah, they journey to the Tower of Elysius to end the world. But nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and some angels have plans of their own…

Once again I’m participating in the M/M Romance Goodreads Group’s Don’t Read In The Closet event, Love’s Landscapes. My story this year is Hinori’s Journey. If you are a member of the group or wish to join (18+ only), you can read the story right now by clicking this link.

If you don’t wish to join the group, the ebook download of Hinori’s Journey will be available for free download in a few days from the group website.

Here’s the prompt I took for the story:

PHOTO DESCRIPTION:
An androgynous man stands with a curved blade in hand. He is clearly a warrior who treasures grace and beauty as much as the art of war.

I am from a race that is both masculine and feminine in one corporeal form. Our life’s journey determines which traits end up being dominant. Please tell my story and how I find my perfect partner. I ask that the setting be sci-fi/fantasy and that my MC is a warrior, anything else goes.

Senator Marcus Brutus has spent his life serving Rome, but it’s difficult to be a patriot when the Republic, barely recovered from a civil war, is under threat by its own leader. Brutus’s one retreat is his country home, where he steals a few precious days now and then with Cassius, his brother-in-law and fellow soldier—and the one he loves above all others. But the sickness at the heart of Rome is spreading, and even Brutus’s nights with Cassius can’t erase the knowledge that Gaius Julius Caesar is slowly becoming a tyrant.

I adored this book. It was extremely clever in its interpretation of the events leading up to the assassination of Julius Caesar and gave a conscience to Brutus instead of making him the villain of the story. I loved how Brutus was reluctant when he heard Cassius’s plan to kill Caesar and needed some convincing, eventually carrying out the deed with some reluctance. The story ended in an utterly believable fashion that didn’t glorify murder in the slightest and left me feeling sorry for everyone involved.

It was young servant Tiresias that really stole my heart, though. Rejected by his family, he comes to serve Brutus first as a horse-boy and then later at his home. He bears witness to the plot unfolding and offers Brutus support without judgment. I loved that they were both able to accept one another for who they were.

If you know anything about the assassination of Caesar and are looking for a a story set in Ancient Rome, you’ll love this. It fleshes out the facts with a human story that gives life to history and that’s exactly what I want from my historical romance. I’ll be looking for more of this author’s work in the future.

When a gang of men tries to take advantage of young Alen, he kills one of them in self-defense. The penalty for murder is death, but the local priest is willing to waive the sentence if Alen will submit to his desires. Alen wants neither outcome, for he already has his heart set on a being he has seen in the flames of his hearth, the only one who has been there for him besides his mother. When the sentence is carried out, the being of fire Firnal takes form and Alen discovers his friend in the flames was more than a trick of his imagination after all.

Burnt Offerings was very hard for me to get into at first. The writing style is thick, littered with superfluous adjectives that did little to move the story along and made the book hard to follow. The beginning is packed full of unnecessary description of what is basically a standard fantasy-esque village. Once I got past this, I found I liked the story quite a bit. Alen is a tragic figure and the villagers bully him for having spurned their affections. I’m not sure I bought that they all seemed to find him irresistibly attractive, since attraction is such a subjective thing, but I could definitely empathize with Alen’s pain at the unwanted attention he seemed to draw and his desire to get away from it.

The priest was a shallow villain who was after Alen only for his body, but Alen’s mother brought a lot of emotion to the story, fearing for her son the way any mother would and trying to protect him from a cruel world. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her as she begged for Alen’s life.

I found the ending surprising given the sales pitch, but I wasn’t complaining. To see Alen find happiness was fulfilling and satisfying, which begs the question: why is this part of Dreamspinner Press’s Bittersweet Dreams line? Alen is happier at the end of the book than he is at the beginning. His love for Firnal endures and survives. I can’t say that this book ends with anything less than a HEA in my opinion.

If you can deal with overly formal speech and a verbose writing style in order to get to a good story, you may like this. I certainly found it full of surprises. If you were expecting a tragedy, though, you may be left scratching your head after reading Burnt Offerings.

Cherry Blossoms and Titanium is part of the free Love Has No Boundaries event on Goodreads.

Jacqs is a hyper-masculine alpha male seated firmly in the closet until a new man on the ship, pansexual Zeke, forces him to look at the world in a different light and come to the understanding that he can be attracted to a specific trait in a person regardless of their gender.

I’m familiar with Firefly/Serenity, but I took this as a story on its own merits and didn’t think of the characters in the show. If you’re turned off by the prompt mentioning the show – fear not. The Only Way Out Is In stands alone and you need no previous knowledge to enjoy it. In fact, the author comes up with a rich world on her own, filled with sexual terminology that is both familiar and alien. I can’t say that I saw this as a fan fiction at all.

I’m usually not the biggest fan of the alpha male type of character, but Jacqs admires talent and dedication and that’s something I could relate to. As the ice around him slowly melts and he comes to accept his new discovery about himself I found myself warming up to him more. The buildup of tension was satisfying, as was the ending.

I was glad that Jacqs’ orientation troubles weren’t as easily defined as being gay and in massive denial. The author actually used a reasonable amount of nuance to create a character that is clearly still attracted to women, but who admires and is attracted to a certain type of man as well. I’m always happy to see bisexual characters in a genre which is often overwhelmingly about gay men.

I have to say that I really enjoyed The Only Way Out Is In. It’s a nice length story, its characters are well-rounded and their motivations well-explored, and the eventual conclusion is satisfying and believable. It’s free as part of the Love Has No Boundaries event, so what are you waiting for?

Kyle has lost the use of his legs after being shot by a Glyrinny disrupter, so when he’s asked to hunt down a spy from the mysterious, shape shifting alien race, he’s more than happy to take the job. Obtaining passage on board the Scorpion, he meets a man from his home world, Grimm, who takes a special interest in Kyle despite his useless legs. Kyle himself has given up on seeing himself as a sexual being, but finds himself attracted to the warrior, even though that attraction could stand in the way of his mission.

Incursion is well thought out and excellently constructed. Voinov has put together an interesting world with some colorful races and characters. Grimm is a most fascinating person and you can really see why Kyle is attracted to him, even though he’s trying to concentrate on his mission. The story takes many twists and turns until we get to the final, brilliant conclusion which had me shaking my head with a smile on my face. Incursion is a smart story, one that’ll have you thinking about the implications long after the last page has been turned.

A war based on cultural misunderstandings with the alien Karalian race has plagued Humans for over two hundred years. Thrust into this war is Alan Watson-Karvakian, a patriotic fighter pilot who fights in the war to protect his family back on Earth. He believes with all his heart that he’s defending Earth from a wicked alien race hellbent on its destruction.

Everything’s about to change for Alan. When his ship crash-lands on contested planet Rinax One, he meets Karalian Vash Zor’Vina, who rocks Alan’s expectations by saving his life. Vash is being pursued by Karalian commandoes determined to execute him, and Alan finds himself mired in complex Karalian social issues. He’ll have to re-evaluate his views if he wants to save Vash, and come to the understanding that not everything he’s been told by his government is the truth.

Add the fact that Vash is attractive and stirring in a way that Alan hasn’t felt in years, and the stage is set for an internal struggle that will take both of them past differences, politics, and personal doubts into a romance that will change their lives forever.

A story written for the Goodreads Gay Science Fiction Group’s 500 Member Challenge, based on the following prompt from user Bluesky39:

“I would like to read about a future human race at war with an alien race. Two soldiers, one from each side, are the only survivors left on an alien planet and have to work together to survive. They should fall in love and have an HEA but the conflict between the races doesn’t have to be resolved. Maybe our heroes escape to another galaxy or find asylum on a neutral planet. The military aspect and the clash between the differing races and cultures are key to the story.”